Fear Factory -
Soilwork
- Strapping
Young
Lad - Darkane
Dec 1st 2005
The Pound, San Francisco, CA, USA
It was with great surprise that I saw the poster announcing Fear
Factory coming to the Pound. I mean, the venue is tiny, and I couldn't
imagine why the band couldn't fill a bigger venue. Anyways, whatever
the reason, it was a great chance to see the band playing a small club,
and hey, Strapping Young Lad is one the bill too. How could you not go?
I arrived late, so the opening act Darkane played like half a song as I
arrived, then vacated the stage.
Next came my Canadian brethren Strapping Young Lad. I had seen them
once before in LA, but this show was far better. The sound first off
was awesome, the band was tight, Gene was rockin on this drums, and
Devin did his usual antics on stage (at one point he discussed in great
detail how he had 3 foot balls, a penis that was tiny in length but 12
inches wide, like a dinner plate with a slit down the center. He then
later farted on the crowd.) They played a decent selection of songs,
although a short set due to their opening act status. They opened with
'Imperial', then 'Skeksis', which isn't one of my favorite songs, but
was then happy to hear 'All Hail The New Flesh'. They did a performance
of 'Love' which was a little bit slower than normal, which made it
heavier but maybe just a tad too slow. 'Zen' was awesome, 'Relentless'
was good and ending with 'In The Rainy Season' is really the only way
to go, considering the end of the song is just the heaviest, most
brutally moshable riff EVER!! So, awesome show from the Lad, wish it
was longer.
Next came Soilwork. Having never gotten into the band, I can only
really report the following very random observations: The drummer looks
a lot like the drummer from Scarve (turns out it's the same guy), boy
do these guys sound like In
Flames, and their bass player has more stage presence than their
vocalist. They played a good set and people seemed to be into them, but
personally I didn't see anything that would persuade me to go out and
buy their cds.
Finally Fear Factory came onto the stage. I'd seen them live before
years and years ago, and seen a few bootlegs of the band, and the one
thing that always annoyed me was how tight they were on cd but how they
were a little sloppy live. Well, I don't know if it's just this
specific show, if they've been practicing, or Dino not being in the
band anymore, but god damn they were tight. The guitar/bass/kick drums
were in absolute perfect sync all night and notes were cut off with
perfection. They opened with the first 2 tracks off their new album
"Transgression", which had good energy live, but since I didn't like
the album as much as their older material, I was happy that this ended
up being the only 2 tracks they played off the album. Actually, those 2
songs got me a little worried at first because Burton's vocals on them
were a little off tune, but by about song 3 his voice must have warmed
up
because every song after that was in perfect pitch, and the sung vocals
had a nice full bodied sound (like good beer). Since it's the band's
15th anniversary, they played basically 2 tunes from all their albums
(give or take), the performances of 'Demanufacture' and 'Self Bias
Resistor' were note for note like the album versions, and just
spectacular to see live. They also played 'Shock', 'Edge Crusher', 'Big
God/Rape Souls', 'Martyr', 'Slave Labor', 'Cyber Waste', 'Acres Of
Skin', 'Scumgrief', 'Archetype', a bunch of other songs that I forget
right now, and ended with 'Replica'. Overall the crowd was pretty into
it, there was a bit of a lull in the middle of the set but the
beginning and end were strong with some serious moshing, and of course
audience participation (Fear Factory songs have some great parts to
chant, I mean it's awesome hearing a whole room screaming "I've Got, No
More, God Damn, Re-grets!"). A few more surprise songs would have been
nice, but hearing 'Big God/Rape Souls' was certainly a rare gem.
Overall, great concert, I was totally surprised with just how tight
Fear Factory has gotten, and seeing Devin do crazy stuff on stage is
always fun, so check them out when they drive through your town,
especially if it's in a small venue.
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